Entries in Parker Spitzer
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Photo Courtesy - SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- As was the case with Rep. Paul Ryan’s official GOP response to the State of the Union address on Tuesday, the Republican strategy for pushing back against President Obama’s call for new “investments” appears to be to get the American people to swallow a bitter reality pill.

“If you really want to talk about what the Sputnik moment is,” House Speaker John Boehner said on CNN’s Parker Spitzer Wednesday night, referring to a line in Obama’s speech, "it’s the fact that we're broke. And the American people know we're broke.”

In his interview with Kathleen Parker, Speaker Boehner went on to criticize Obama for not talking enough about “cutting spending and getting our debt under control” and said Congress should consider “an array of possible solutions” to do so.

One of the solutions that Boehner wants to keep on the table is making cuts to Social Security, although he acknowledged that he spoke too soon when he previously suggested raising the retirement age.

"I made a mistake when I did that because I think having the conversation about how big the problem is the first step," he said last night.

President Obama, meanwhile, echoed many of the same themes from his speech while visiting an energy company in Manitowoc, Wisc. There, he reiterated his commitment to “make sure 80 percent of America’s electricity comes from clean energy sources by 2035.”

“I came here to Manitowoc to glimpse that future,” Obama said.

Thursday, he will continue his sales pitch with an interview streamed live on YouTube beginning at 2:30 p.m. He’ll answer questions submitted online by Americans.

We wonder if he will get any questions about Sarah Palin’s response to the State of the Union, which she delivered in an interview on Fox News last night as well as in a Facebook post.

“Americans are growing impatient with a White House that still just doesn’t get it,” Palin wrote on Facebook. “The President proves he doesn’t understand that the biggest challenge facing our economy is today’s runaway debt when he states we want to make sure ‘we don’t get buried under a mountain a debt.’ That’s the problem! We are buried under Mt. McKinley-sized debt.” ﻿